David's Confession of Sin

[Sue J Love]

“For the choir director. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.

“Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness;
According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity
And cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my transgressions,
And my sin is ever before me.
Against You, You only, I have sinned
And done what is evil in Your sight,
So that You are justified when You speak
And blameless when You judge.” (Psalm 51:1-4 NASB1995)

King David was a man of God, a man who served God with his life, but he was still a man. He was still human. And one evening, from the roof of his house, he saw a woman bathing, and he lusted after her, and he had her brought to him, and he had sex with her. Her name was Bathsheba. Then she became pregnant. And rather than him doing the right and honorable thing by confessing his wrongdoing, he tried to cover up his sin by attempting to get her husband to go have relations with her so that it would be assumed that her husband was the one who had impregnated her.

When that failed, David then arranged for her husband Uriah to be killed in battle, and that was accomplished. When Bathsheba learned that her husband had died, she mourned his death. But when her time of mourning was over, David sent for her and brought her to his house, and she became his wife, and she bore him a son. But the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the Lord (see 2 Samuel 11:1-27).

Then the Lord sent Nathan to David, and Nathan told him a parable which described in an illustrative form what David had done to Bathsheba and to Uriah without Nathan having to directly confront David with his wrongdoing. When David burned with anger against the man in the parable, saying that man deserves to die, then Nathan said to David, “You are the man!” And then he let David know what God said about what he had done. And God said, “Why have you despised the word of the Lord by doing evil in His sight?” And God let him know what would be his punishment for his sin.

Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” God then forgave him his sin, and he did not kill David, but David suffered the death of his son whom he had had with Bathsheba. And he suffered other consequences, as well, for the evil he had done (see 2 Samuel 12:1-25).

Then we have recorded for us in Psalm 51 David’s confession of sin against the Lord, which was also a sin against Bathsheba and against her husband Uriah, and against others in the process, too. But his greatest sin, he felt, was against God. For he recognized that what he had done was evil in the sight of God.

“Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
And in sin my mother conceived me.
Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being,
And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom.
Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Make me to hear joy and gladness,
Let the bones which You have broken rejoice.
Hide Your face from my sins
And blot out all my iniquities.” (Psalm 51:5-9 NASB1995)

David’s confession of sin was not superficial. He was not just mouthing words of repentance while his heart did not change. He was not just admitting to have sinned, so that he would get forgiveness, but he was truly desirous to have God do in his life whatever needed to be done to keep him from ever going back to sinning against God and against other humans ever again. He was so determined in his repentance, in fact, that he asked for the Lord to not only forgive his sins, but to purify his heart of all sin, to remove such sins from him so that he would never commit them again.

And basically what he was praying to God is what the gospel of our salvation is all about. It is not about Jesus putting our sins to death with him on that cross merely to forgive us our sins, but to cleanse us from our sins, to purify our hearts, and to deliver us out of our slavery (addiction) to sin so that we will now follow our Lord in obedience to his commands in holy living. He put our sins to death with him on that cross in order to change us, to transform us, and to lead us in the ways of righteousness and holiness and so that our lives will now be surrendered to doing his will and no longer us living in sin.

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:19-39; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]

Walking in The Light

Based off 1 John 1-2
An Original Work / November 16, 2011
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

When I lift up my voice, and
Sing praise unto God,
I will fellowship with my
Lord and Savior, King.
In Him there is no darkness.
He is in the light of truth.
If we walk in His light,
From sin He purifies.

If we repent of our sins,
He’ll forgive us now,
When we humble ourselves, and
Before Jesus bow.
The man who says, “I know Him,”
But does not obey His truth,
There is no truth in him.
In darkness still he’s found.

Do not love the world of sin,
For it is hell bound.
If you follow the world, you’ll
Not in Christ be found.
The world and its desires
Will not last; they’ll expire.
The one who does God’s will,
Receives eternal life.

See that what you have heard from
Christ remains in you.
Then, you’ll remain in Christ, and
In His Father, too.
This is what He promised us –
His eternal life with God.
So, continue in Him, and
You’ll receive a crown.

David’s Confession of Sin
An Original Work / October 20, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love